1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inside mirror assembly for a vehicle. More particularly, it relates to an inside mirror assembly for a vehicle, which is an inside mirror assembly without black bezel, so called frameless type and may implement reflective surfaces in day and night modes in accordance with light reflectivity.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, an inside mirror (also called a room mirror) for a vehicle serves to assure a visual field at a rear seat and a rear side visual field, and is mounted on a ceiling surface above a boundary portion between a driver seat and a front passenger seat so that an angle thereof may be adjusted.
Usually, an inside mirror assembly includes a housing which is assembled to the ceiling surface by a ball joint or the like, and a mirror glass which is mounted at a front side of the housing so as to reflect light.
Most of the mirror glasses have a structure having a flat reflective surface having a predetermined thickness, and as a result, there is a drawback in that light from a head lamp (particularly, a high beam) of a following vehicle is directly reflected which causes light blindness to a driver.
In the related art, a frameless inside mirror assembly, which may adjust light reflectivity in order to prevent light blindness to the driver, is published, and the published contents will be described below with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B.
In FIG. 1, FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, reference numeral 10 indicates a housing 10 of the inside mirror assembly, and reference numeral 20 indicates a prism glass.
The frameless type prism glass 20 is mounted and fixed to a front opening portion of the housing 10, and the prism glass 20 has a thickness that is gradually decreased from an upper side to a lower side.
In this case, the housing 10 is mounted by a ball joint unit 12 so that an angle thereof may be adjusted, and a lever 14, which is used to adjust the angle of the housing, is connected to the ball joint unit 12.
In particular, a front surface of the prism glass 20 is formed as a first reflective surface 21 which implements a night reflective mode, and a rear surface is formed as a second reflective surface 22 which is coated with a reflective material that implements a day reflective mode.
As illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, in the day reflective mode, a rear object and light are reflected by the second reflective surface 22 of the prism glass 20, such that the driver can see the rear object reflected by the second reflective surface 22, and at the same time, the light reflected by the second reflective surface 22 reflects into the eyes of the driver.
In contrast, in the night reflective mode, when the housing 10 is tilted upward (about 3.5°) by manipulating and moving the lever 14 downward on the basis of the ball joint 12 in order to reduce light reflectivity, the prism glass 20 is also tilted together with the housing 10 at the same angle, and as a result, the rear object and light are reflected by the first reflective surface 21 of the prism glass 20.
A reflection angle is adjusted by tilting the prism glass 20 in the night reflective mode as described above, such that light, which enters from the rear object (particularly, light from a head lamp of a following vehicle), is reflected by the first reflective surface 21 in a state in which reflectivity is reduced, thereby preventing light blindness to the driver.
However, the inside mirror assembly in the related art has the following problems.
Firstly, when the rear object is reflected by the first and second reflective surfaces of the prism glass in the day reflective mode and the night reflective mode, an image overlapping phenomenon in which a virtual image and a real image overlap each other occurs due to characteristics of the prism glass, and as a result, there is a problem in that the driver feels perplexed at the time of seeing the rear object with the eyes even though the driver may recognize the rear object.
Secondly, there is inconvenience in that when the driver drives the vehicle during the day time in the day reflective mode the next day after the driver drives the vehicle at night in the night reflective mode, the driver may not recognize the fact that the prism glass is tilted (because the housing is tilted, the driver may recognize that a position of the housing has been changed), such that the driver uses the prism glass by merely adjusting the housing, and does not recognize the changed position of the lever until the driver drives the vehicle at night, and then uses the prism glass by adjusting the housing again.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.